There are good things coming out of Japan, too. This was the conclusion after Melt-Banana’s gig on Sue Stage on Saturday night. The audience wanted more but the band had given it their all and was drained after an hour’s performance.
It’s no wonder. They played their punk with such vigour that it was scary. Every song seemed faster than the previous, and the audience got progressively more excited as the gig went on. The front rows must have really needed the cold water that the bouncers were dishing out.
Most of the gig the band played frenzied punk which at its gentlest could be compared to Bad Religion, albeit spiced up with the effects by guitarist Ichirou Agata, but most of the time the tempo was something out of this world. The band, fronted by singer Yasuko Onuki, displayed their noise skills in a two-minute medley of ten-second songs, disregarding all the conventional rules of music. How could one describe that? Chaos and madness probably hit closest to home.
Melt-Banana’s gig wasn’t weird but different in a good way – and being different is a positive thing.
Text: Jarkko Böhm
Photograph: Risto Kuittinen
Translation: Alma Tuominen
